


They Keep Me Warm

by ronnings



Series: ODaaT Shorts [1]
Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: Canon Non-Binary Character, F/F, Fluff, Other, Season 2, There is no plot, but not if you watched the trailer, kinda spoilers, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-10 00:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13492887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronnings/pseuds/ronnings
Summary: Elena and Syd are cute and cuddle and then Penelope finds them asleep on the couch.  Basically they are cute together and I love Elena and her girlfriend.





	They Keep Me Warm

There are two teenagers sitting on the Alvarez’s couch watching the end of an episode of Doctor Who. They’ve both seen it before, so the volume is kept low, and together the pair is mostly making idle chatter because both of them are tired from the Women’s March earlier in the day.

Elena glances down at her phone and sees that it’s 9:19, and it’s been an hour since she and Syd sat down. When she looks over to the other teen, she wants to say something. But Elena isn’t sure how to say what she’s thinking. How do you tell someone how amazing they are and how much you love hanging out with them? She doesn’t know what to say, but when Syd catches her staring, she blurts out her first thought, “Gotta love throw pillows am I right?” She moved to pat the throw on Syd’s lap, but accidentally grabs their wrist. Elena yanks her hand away as though it was burned and fidgets. “Look at that! Keeps your lap warm...stops you from doing stupid things with your hands…” She trails off after reaching across to the other side of the couch and quickly pulling the throw into her own lap and gripping it until her knuckles go white.

They look down at their hands and don’t look back up for a couple seconds. “Oh, okay. Right,” Syd thinks they know what’s going on, but they aren’t sure. “Are you not okay with that?”

“With what?” Elena asks as she mulls over her options. Internally she smacks herself for being such a dork in front of her girlfriend. They’re already dating, she shouldn’t still be having trouble talking to them.

When she doesn’t hear any answer from Syd, she looks up from her own hands. Breathing in, she’s a little scared to be bold, but love is bold, right? “Okay, the hand thing. I’m fine with it, I’m really fine with it. I just wasn’t expecting that, and then I didn’t know what to do.” She faces more towards the teen next to her. “I’m a planner, I like to know what I’m going to do. And well, you throw me totally off my game.” Elena reaches for her girlfriend’s hand. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Neither do I.” The teens slowly lean into each other and they meet in a soft kiss filled with relief. When they pull back, Syd can’t help but add, “Just to be clear, you’re okay with holding my hand?” Elena nodded and they swallowed. “Would you be okay with this…?” Syd gently drapes their arm across Elena’s shoulders, fingers gently grazing the girl’s bicep.

“Yeah. That’s perfect.” She says with a broad grin stretching across her face. Elena loves the warmth Syd gives off, and her smile turns gentle as she leans into the other teen’s body. 

They find themselves lying down on the couch after some time. Occasionally sneaking a quick glance at the other. Syd’s back is on the cushions and Elena is pressed half on Syd, half on the cushions, with Syd’s head poking over Elena’s because they didn’t slide as far down on the couch. 

“Can, can I hold your hand?” Elena asks as she reaches her left hand toward Syd’s right, hesitant. Syd smiles reaches their hand towards hers.

Elena yawns and slouches into Syd’s body, the Doctor and Clara all but forgotten. They tuck their head onto Elena’s, and smile to themself. Soon, Elena starts to doze off, and Syd carefully reaches for the blanked on the back of the couch before allowing themself to fall into a light sleep.

***

It’s really late, Penelope realizes once she sees the time. It’s 23:36 and she’s only just getting home from her girl’s night with Jill and Ramona. When she turns her key to unlock the apartment and begins to gently ease the door open, she can hear what she thinks is the Doctor Who theme song playing. As the door pushes further, Penelope sees, even in the dim light of the TV, two heads pressed together and she remembers Josh.

“STOP!” She can’t help herself. The only other person in the apartment right then was Lydia, and those teenage heads were very close together. She rationalizes this in her head as she flips the lights on and storms to the front of the TV.

“Lupe?” Lydia says she springs open her curtains.

“Mom?” Elena says groggily, before realizing who she is on top of. “Mom!” The girl quickly jumps up, almost tripping on the blanket that she definitely hadn’t had before she fell asleep.

“Ms. Alvarez! Um, hi.” Syd awkwardly starts without much thought. They stumble over the discarded blanket before standing next to Elena. They don’t know what to say, so they look at their sock-clad feet.

“Elena, what’s going on?” Penelope asks in a much gentler tone.

“So, after we got back from the Women’s March, we played Pictionary with Abuelita. But then, Syd got a text from their mom that she couldn’t pick them up, so we ate dinner and started watching Doctor Who. I guess we fell asleep.” Elena scratches her arm lightly. No one spoke.

Until Penelope looked from her mother to her daughter twice. “Elena, why didn’t you text me?”

“I did! You never responded. I called you, too, but your phone must have been off.” Elena is flushed, and Penelope winces a little bit as she checks her now turned-on phone. 

“I’m sorry, Elena. And that’s all that happened?” She looks between the two teens and her eyes flick down to where their hands are almost touching, and back up.

“Yes, Mom.” Elena says frankly. Penelope turns her gaze to Syd.

“Syd?”

“Yeah, Ms. Alvarez.” Syd says with finality and Penelope remembers that her daughter has a girlfriend who is now going to stay over at their apartment.

“Syd, you can sleep on the couch.” Elena tried not to let any disappointment show through because she knew this was going to happen, but cuddling with Syd was so...nice. She didn’t really want it to be over yet, but she resigned herself for the time. “Mami, please go back to sleep. And Elena, wait for me in your room while I help Syd.”

As the others vanish, Penelope turns off the TV and gets a pillow for Syd. “I see you don’t need to borrow any pajamas.” Penelope points to Syd’s shirt, which is really Elena’s shirt.

“Oh, no...I guess not.” After a pause, they continue. “Thanks for letting me stay.”

“Of course!” Penelope says with a dismissive wave. “As long as you stay out of Elena’s room tonight.” She adds a sharper look for affect, but it leaves almost as quickly as it arrived. With a final pat on the shoulder, Penelope heads toward Elena’s room. “Goodnight Syd.” She turns out the lights.

“Goodnight Ms. Alvarez.” Syd turns over and feels the exhaustion weighing on them, before drifting off again.

Penelope opens Elena’s door to find that her daughter is ready to fall asleep except for the book she’s holding and the reading lamp that is still on.

“Hey.” She says as she closed the door and sits on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry I freaked out. I should have checked my phone. And, and I definitely shouldn’t have assumed you were doing something wrong. You’ve always been an honest kid, but I saw you and Syd cuddling and I flashed back to when I freaked out about you and Josh. And clearly, I’m not adjusted to you dating.”

“It’s okay, mom. But you don’t have to worry about...me...having sex. Not now, anyway.” Elena can’t stop the bright red hue that her cheeks burn. Being sex positive is easier when she’s not talking to her mother about her own sex life, or lack thereof.

“Then-“ Penelope yawns for a long few seconds. “Then we can talk about this tomorrow, I need sleep, and so do you. Catherine the Great can wait until tomorrow.” Elena has an argument on the tip of her tongue about how great of a biography it is, but she swallows it in favor of a nod.

“Yeah. Goodnight, mom, I love you.” 

“I love you, too, Elena. Goodnight.” Elena shuts off her light once her mom starts closing the door and puts her book on her nightstand before turning over and smiling to herself. Her girlfriend is pretty awesome.

**Author's Note:**

> Loved their stories in S2. Wish we had more of them, but honestly, the whole show could be about these two and I’d still want more. Lemme know what you guys think! Sorry it’s rushed, but I really wanted to write something the day of launch


End file.
